Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-08-18

interesting and wonderful adventures, an &C.
count of which was recently published in the
Boston Globe and afterwards in the Journal,
has written as an explanatory letter for pub
location. He saws ~ fear that the
article as written in the Globe NAV seriously
interfere with the passage of bill for ar
rears now pending in Congress, the condition
of which bill is unknown to me since Con-
gress last adjourned, and fear the amount
of money pending would not be trusted with
me if the committee. to whom the bill was
referred, should chance to read the report of
the Secretary of the Navy regarding the
voyage of the Polaris and then read the arti-
Gle in the Globe as the result of personal in
terview."
Lieutenant Coffn's letter is as follows :
HALLowELL, Aug. 18th, 1887
To the Journal, 4ugusta, Ne:
would be pleased if you will favor me by
correcting some rather wild statements in the
Boston Daily Globe, under the head of ''Nine
Years in a Dream" First, | went to Cali
tc rnla in March, A d. l849, after being dis
charged from the 9th U. S. Infantry as 4th
sergeant of Co. II. And did not commence
the study of law until A. d. 1857 in Siskiyo
county near the line of Oregon, which pro-
fession left to enter the service in the late
war of the Rebellion, having even then but
just commenced practice.
Secondly, | started from Portsmouth, n.
H., in q mutual mining and trading company
of % members. My old captain. John H.
Jackson, of Co. H, 9th S Infantry, was
elected president of the company. We
parted in Panama, being lett by the com
peny on the Isthmus to follow them to San
Francisco in the duglut canoe, as the com
panv had not funds sufficient TO pay the fare
for all hands from the Isthmus to San Fran
cisco was the only one of the company of
20 with whom | started that went in the
canoe, although there were 30 in all who left
Panama in the canoe. Her name was Calista.
She was Ga feet long, feet beam and u feet
deep, made from one single haywood tree.
There is one of about the same dimensions
in the Smithsonian institute in Washington,
ID G. We timoered her out with locker
Is inches on each side and raised Is inches
above the gunwale, giving her 10 feet beam
ana nine feet depth of hold. She was per
fectly seaworthy, although she had but little
bu0yancy. We could only get seven miles
an hour out of her The crafts motion was
more like a log than vessel; as the old say
ing goes, she would butt sea three times
snd then GO under it, We were two hundred
miles at sea in her in a dead calm, with
nothing to eat on board at one time and the
steamer California spoke US and gave US two
barrels of bread and two of beef. She vas
the first steamer en- those waters and it
was her first trip. Several of the
passengers were addicted to swearing and
gambling when we started from Panama but
on the 9TH of July, l649, we rode out hurrl-
cane We had previous to that buried one of
our number in the bay Of Panama, and at the
time of which | write we were under bare
poles, and kept her head to the sea by making
a drag Of an old square foresail, aud every
sea swept her deck. | was the deck watch,
and thirty three men were slowed below with
the sliding hatch closed, and in the torrid
zone. | chung to fore shroud, and when a
heavy sea swept her deck it would straighten
me out like a whip lash, and as soon as 1t
passed | would open the hatch and let the air
in TO the poor fellows below. When the
hatch was opened, the vapor of their breaths
would flow up from below like the smoke
from the smoke stack of locomotive engine.
A. first noticed a remarkable change in the
language of the men. None were swearing
not long after the Storm burst upon us; some
began to pray, and in few hours NEST of
them were decidedly pious. | have been at
camp meetings, and attended prayer meetings
OF many religious denominations, but | really
do not believe | ever saw so much piety
compressed in small a space before or
since, as that shown there before the gale
WAS over
| give this description of our voyage as a
reason FOR leaving the Calista at Mazatlan,
where | shipped 10 the French ship Roland, be-
fore the mast, for San Francisco. Soon after
| Joined the Roland's crew, company from
across the plains lost their way, and came
in to Mazatlan, where they engaged passage
to San Francisco on board the Roland, max
ing her number of crew and passengers sixty
eight. Had not given this explanation, the
crew of sixty eight would appear like Fail
staff men in buckram to those who were
knowing to the truth, and to any candid
reader, as though l had not been com
pletely awake yet, and some fourteen years
have passed since nv nine years dream end
ed. There is yet another statement of which
should max mention, which is this 1t was
in the spring of 1872, in latitude 81 deg, 50
min. NORTH that my memory returne J, and
Capt. Budington ordered me to put my things
aft. and made me sleep in his berth with him
until he was satisfied that | could be trusted
r. carpenter of the vessel, when they told
him | was crazy. Also there were fourteen
OF us who stayed with the ship at the time we
were separated from the nineteen who spent
the winter en- the Zee. drifting south all win
ter, and in the spring were picked up below
Cape Farewell, and got home six months
before. We had to stop until spring opened
before we could build the bosts in which we
returned. until picked no on the whaling
grounds }. ". Booth WAS first fireman. not
first engineer. We started 10 return from
our second winter quarters, in two boats with
seven IN each boat, one under Capt. Buding
ton snd the other under Capt c H Chester,
his first officer
nALLOyTELL.